Man held in girlfriend’s overdose death

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. (AP) – A western Pennsylvania man has been jailed on charges he provided the fentanyl-laced heroin that led to his girlfriend’s fatal overdose in February.

Online court records don’t list an attorney for Shayne Emery, 31, of Slippery Rock, who has been charged with drug delivery resulting in the death of old Brittany Lee Hays, 21.

Police say Hays’ mother found her unresponsive on Feb. 2, with a syringe and stamp bags marked “Theraflu” in Hays’ room.

“Theraflu” was one of the street names used for heroin laced with the powerful synthetic painkiller fentanyl that’s being blamed for more than 20 fatal overdoses in western Pennsylvania earlier this year, three of which occurred in Butler County.

Federal authorities are investigating similar rashes of overdoses in several other states being blamed on the same potent mixture.

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